The weird light in these photos is because there is so much windblown snow in the sky. Since mid week Kodiak has experienced extremely high winds. So called 'gap winds' where wind blows across the Shelikof from the Bering Sea through the gaps in the Alaska Peninsula mountain range. The winds were screaming up to 80 mph out of the west.
I was supposed to leave Wednesday morning for an anthropology conference in Anchorage and my plane got cancelled 3 times. I actually did not think I was going to go and had unpacked and cancelled my rental car and hotel room. And then just a few hours before it left I got a seat on a plane that looked like it might make it out. And it did - except because of the high winds they had to lighten the plane and took very little luggage on board. We took off towards the mountains and I have never been in a plane that climbed so quickly! We were the only plane that got out of Kodiak in three days. And the planes did not fly for another day after we got out either.
So none of my luggage made it, and in Anchorage I had to make do with just what was in my backpack. Thank god I stuck a toothbrush in there! Once in Anchorage I had to find a hotel and car. It was the start of the Iditarod weekend and the only car I could find was a BMW. But I wanted to ski and so I needed a car. I found that it was easy to rent XC skis and in the future I might do that instead of carrying skis over in a ski tube and filling up a duffle bags with ski boots.
My luggage finally did make it to Anchorage but it was my last day, and so I never went out to the airport to retrieve it. On my return home I picked it up at the airport luggage area and then went up stairs and re checked it on to Kodiak.
These photos are from a XC ski I took while I was on weather hold before I left. I went to the upper Buskin area and skied in the trees to avoid the wind. I could it hear it screaming overhead and the sky was filled with 'snow dust' blown off of the mountains. No planes flying in those winds!
Patrick
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